Jill Hammonds EdBlog

I spent the morning working with the junior class teachers and the afternoon with those a little further up the system. By the end of the morning there was a buzz of excitement, and teachers apparently arrived back at school keen to get in and get started. So what had been the magic that made the dramatic change?

Simply, it doesn’t take magic - it takes good management and routines, and a clear focus on learning that drives any use of technology. This development is not about “How can I use Kid Pix or Powerpoint or any other software in my classroom?” It is about “What am I trying to get my kids to learn today in their reading or writing or maths or whatever?” If and when that can be enhanced through the use of technology, then “How can I manage that process with my class?” becomes the next consideration.

The “buzz” generated in this session was around the stories I told of classes who had markedly increased knowledge of beginning sounds when they set up a simple Powerpoint Slideshow template with all transitions preset and duplicated on the many slides, with a Paint background embedded that kids could then double click and create their own 5 minute wonderfully creative illustrations. The “magic” that sped up the learning, was in the fact that the kids were so motivated to play that slideshow many times a day because they loved seeing their pictures whirling in and out of the show - so simple repetition was the magic, and the programme provided hugely increased motivation. The focus on simple clear routines and coaching models that demanded independence from the kids meant that teachers found the process easy to implement and it ran itself throughout the day while the teachers got on with their teaching.

The practical work I did with these teachers was then on discovery learning around how that simple activity could be applied to modeling writing during news time at the mat. These teachers were then guided through questioning to work the process out for themselves. That way they can apply the same process to any other work they want to do on computer with their kids. The usual cry of when can we get time to practise is also simple - have your teacher laptop on your knee during your favourite TV programme and use the ad breaks to play. (I take no responsibility for the fact that these teachers also thought it would mean husbands would have to do the dishes that they currently squeeze into the ad breaks :->> That’s all just good problem solving and innovation LOL)

I believe that good ICT PD is about teaching strategies to make kids innovative, exploratory and independent, yet much of what we see in classrooms is about dependence, step by step instruction on “how to” that requires no thinking or problem solving and high teacher input products. If juniors can switch the balance, then so can any classroom.

I am currently typing up some of the thinking that went into the Friday session, and this can be found in my wiki for junior class teachers. Check it out, and please add your own ideas to support this approach at http://juniorclasses.wikispaces.com Just click “Edit this page” and add your ideas in. Please reference this with your name so that we can see how contributory the site can become.